A Tale of Two Eights.

Saturday late we went to Cuevas.  Last week I was hoping for 60 and found myself on track, hitting the mile 42 point at the end of my second run Saturday.  All I needed was 18 more Sunday...

When I woke up, I found myself less than inspired to run.  I mustered a couple of times, but something (which I will relate soon) made me feel a bit weird about taking off for a three hour run in Cuevas.

Lunch rolled around and we all ate, and finally I told Nataly, "I'm going to feel bad whether I go for a run or I don't." To which she replied, "Go run."

Deneb was asleep, I had a bit more than an hour...

I went out 4 miles and back the same for 8.  I saw some folks on the road, 3 French guys who were walking to the "Bella Vista" and one of the dudes who helped harvest potatoes in Cuevas last December.  I spoke briefly with all of them, and informed the French guys that their "Bella Vista" was 5 kilometers out (it was actually more like 6, but...).  This was at 3 something in the afternoon and to get to the "Bella Vista" and back to the campground at Cuevas was 10+ miles.  They did have packs and presumably tents so the rain that came in force soon after I left them probably wasn't too big a deal.

Anyway.  I only had time for 6 miles on Sunday, but ran 8.  I ran them pretty hard, and have paid for it.  Brutal delayed onset muscle soreness took me out of action yesterday, which had me considering a second day off today.  Seems it was a good thing I didn't actually try for the 18 I'd planned.  Fortunately, as today wore on I felt more and more like going for a run even though I am still quite sore.

Deneb has started daycare.  His first day was yesterday.  Loved it.  Loved it again today.  He's not sure how to interact with the other kids, but just having them around, playing, seems to get him jazzed.  It's messed with his schedule.  He's been sleeping almost until 8:30 in the morning and now we're asking him to get up at 6:45.  It's a brutal transition for me.

Whatever, I prefer earlier wake ups...

So back to today's run.  It was weird.  Laps of the back yard.  Done them before, but today I kept feeling like I should just keep going.  Ended up running for an hour and 10 minutes, just over 8 miles by my GPS.

There's a neighbor kid.  If he sees me, he asks if he can come over.  It's gotten quite annoying.  Not quite Glenn Close, Michael Douglas annoying, but well downright annoying.

Today I realized I could use that to my advantage, and before I started my run I unlocked the gate, set out some stuff for playing in the sand  pit and then set out trotting in circles.

On my second lap, The Question Was Presented.  I said, "La Reja esta abierta."

A couple more laps and I opened the gate for Franco.  Who quickly went off to play with the dogs and Deneb.  What seemed like some kind of sad, "Where's my Dad?" constant prodding has evolved itself  an ideal situation.  My son is playing happily with an older friend, and I can keep an eye on them.  I look forward to having him over some more.  Maybe he'll run a few laps with me (he did today)...

One Last Bit of Introspection.

In my last post, I noted that in Bolivia I have the time and opportunity to train like I would like for a race like the Leadville 100.  Currently I'm too much of a softy to leave Deneb home with the maid to get out for a long mid-week run, but were he in day care, that wouldn't be an issue.  The real irony of having time to train in Bolivia is that, even while the time is there, it's the only thing I find attractive about being here.

This has put a huge strain on my relationship with my wife.  I often find myself regressing and becoming a person I very much dislike.

There's a further irony.  My wife is doing fabulously well career-wise here.  In fact, I find great pride in the fact that she is such an influential person.  In her current role, she has the capacity to actually make a difference for the environment.  I have uttered on many occasions the phrase, "The only thing I give a shit about when I cast my vote is who will be a better steward of our lands."  She would always have my vote, yet somehow finds herself essentially a dictator.

She is Executive Director of a small institute here which is looking for sustainable methods to harvest Bolivia's timber.  There's more, but if I told you, then I'd have to kill you...

Anyway, all of this complexity ties into why it's too much for me to even attempt Leadville right now.

[editor's note - somehow I forgot to sign off]
Thanks for reading, and sometimes there are just some things which are more important.
Jay

Gotta say something.

From crappie.com (really)...

Too much.

That's pretty much it.

Once Deneb is in school, I can easily find time here in Bolivia to train for Leadville (and perform the way I'd like), but right now, the pleas of, "Papa, peas don't go run." Are too much.  Can't do it.  Must sneak out during the nap.  And the naps are getting shorter.

There's much more, but I don't think I've got the guts to share "the more" in a public forum.  Suffice it to say, there's some heavy irony in the phrase "I can easily find time here in Bolivia to train for Leadville"...

As of today, I've revised my training goals to something I can get done during naptime and feel good about myself - a 50 miler. In Vermont.  Hopefully with Deneb pacing me for the last 50 meters.  We'll see about that...

Anyway, hopefully over the next year, the irony goes away and I can visit the Steamboat 100 in 2013 and qualify myself for UTMB.

Thanks for reading, and why bite anything if it's not too much?
Jay

Slow ramp...

As in, I'm slowly ramping up my mileage. This week, baring something unforeseen, I should hit 48+ miles in training.  My volume is growing.  Today though I am going to have to absolutely force myself out the door.  I'm very tired - both sleepy tired and physically tired. 

The sleepy tired is coming from Deneb.  For some reason, he's decided that he wants to sleep with Mom and Dad every night when we are here in La Guardia. Even if he starts the night in his own bed, eventually he comes looking for space in ours.  Mom can't say no.  He ends up kicking and pounding on me for the remainder of the night.  That leaves me with no more than 4 or 5 hours of quality sleep each night.

The physically tired part is harder to pinpoint, but yesterday I logged 30+ minutes of work in the so called "no mans land" of heart rate zone 3 (tempo).  Tempo work is good for building aerobic fitness, but it has a long recovery time.  So long that many coaches advocate against training in it - stating that the long term benefits are outweighed by the short term consequences.  

Anyway, because of my fitful sleep patterns recently, yesterday I opted to substitute long minutes in Zone 3 for mile repeats - work done in upper zone 4 to low zone 5.  I say it's hard to pinpoint why I'm physically tired since this is an unusual reaction to yesterday's effort.  I've logged many, many 30+ minute long tempo workouts and not felt like I do today.  I'm also coming off a good rest week and even though I had a very tough workout on Saturday, I followed that up with a day off on Sunday.

There's a part of me that is thinking that going out for my regularly scheduled run would be good discipline and help with the mental toughness angle of my Leadville training.  There's a part of me that is thinking to ditch my run all together and take my rest day today.  And, there' a part of me that is trying to find some middle ground.

The compromise is going to win.  This week is challenging scheduling wise, but I can move my short day to today and run my second longest run to Saturday in Cuevas.  That actually works pretty well because I haven't run any hills in over a week.  I'd get 1000+ feet of climbing in on Saturday in addition to the longer run (come to think of it - maybe I should consider moving my long run to Saturday, but will talk to Nataly about that).  Additionally I save the day off for family time.  A good thing.

Anyway, this slow ramp has allowed me to consistently get out and log my miles.  I haven't missed a workout since December.  I think that may be one of my longest streaks ever where I haven't found some excuse or other to take an unscheduled day off.  I really hope to keep that streak going.  We'll see.  I am not even half way to my big mileage weeks yet (next week that'll change).

Thanks for reading, and (got nothing)...
J

So that was a rather spectacular flame out...

So after 2 rather tremendous training weeks, I'm in the middle of one that's purely sucking.

It started to suck when I rescheduled my Wednesday workout for Thursday for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to:

• Needing to buy food for the dog.
• Feeling tired and not wanting to do 1.5 hours of Tempo work.
• Being unsure of what the weeks future schedule would look like
• Am I going to Cuevas tonight, Thursday or Friday?
• Having the car in the shop.

Turns out I'm going to Cuevas tomorrow in fact.

I did get out running on Wednesday.  Actually my run took me to the market where I did in fact buy food
for the dog.  Ended up getting 8.5 miles in.

During that run, I started thinking about why I've been so tired.  I realized that it's a chronic thing that's gone back to when I trained heavily for cycling.  I've always had real trouble getting out for the 3rd week in a 4 week training cycle.

The way I've always coached myself involves cycles with 3 weeks of increasing stress followed by one for recovery.  The problem with that paradigm is that the 3rd week in a typical cycle is marked by a great deal of anxiety about getting the workouts done and the fun in training is replaced by dread.  Not sure that's something I need.

Anyway.  Upon allowing myself to accept that introspection as gospel, I have redesigned my training schedule to reflect 3 week cycles.  This week is now a recovery week and next week will be the first week of Base 2.  I'll lay out my individual workouts later on today, but as for today, I'll run 45 minutes very easy.

Thanks for reading and be safe out there.
J

Guess I've gotta come clean

Ever since crossing the finish line at Run Rabbit Run last year and thinking to myself, "I could actually keep going," I've been thinking about doing a 100.  I haven't said much about it (here) because I haven't really wanted to say anything "permanent".

However.

Monday my wife accepted a new position with a new institute.  In fact, she's the boss.  Now we are one hundred percent set for the next several years.  When we moved, we'd hoped that she'd get set up with a job like this one sooner, but she just needed a bit more time.

This means I've got time to run.

Look at that buckle...

Today I was looking at the website for the Keys 100, an ultra that starts in Key Largo and goes to Key West.  I first came across this race when Googling for "Florida Ultras" some time back and I mentioned it to an old friend - Running Moose.  They haven't opened registration for next year's race yet, but I'll be one of the first entrants for sure.  Hopefully he will be too - I haven't seen Mr. Moose since High School...

Anyway, the reason I mention all of this stuff is that I was reading race reports this morning from the 2010 race and came across the wiki of Jonathan Savage, 2010's Keys 100 winner.  He's got a report from the race, but his wiki has so much more.  Really useful stuff for runners.

So now I have 2 race goals for the coming year.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there.
J